Lifetime Folding Picnic Table, 6-Foot

I have bought two of these. My first one is in my back yard, and is 4-5yrs old, and still as good as new! Takes a bit to put together (the secret is to NOT over-tighten any screws), but is so worth it when done! We do not fold it and store it - it stays outside year-round in Ohio, so it gets rained on, snowed on - you get the picture - in the spring I just take the pressure washer to it, and it's ready to use! I am a big guy, (was around 380lbs, now 307lbs) and all the people on my side of the family are big people. This table has had multiple years of 2-6 people sitting on it all the time. I sit on the table top too - it doesn't wiggle, nor collapse - it's a strong table! No sun fade, it looks the same as the brand new one we bought for friends after they were drooling over ours! It can collapse flat to be hung on a wall in the garage if you like (friends will use it at their camper in the summer, then bring it home each winter) No rust yet, no repairs needed, it just sits in back and is used year-round! Best part, my wife loves it! Nuff said... UPDATE 11/30/2010 Am bad on tracking dates - but this is now 6-8yrs old~! Still in perfect condition, still stays outside year-round, and just gets power-washed each spring. We love it, we use it a LOT, and our entire family are big people with no problems. Would still buy it all over again :) UPDATE 04/13/2012 Just got done power-washing the winter crud off the top and benches. The table is still rock-solid, it's a little faded now, sorta washed-out color now, heh - still almost zero rust! Just a bit on a few of the screw heads where you can't see it unless you flip the table over. I wish I remembered the exact date I bought this, am thinking around 2003, but am pretty bad on dates. All I can say is this table is wonderful, no work ever done to it after I put it together, it's up year-round, and I simply clean it each spring.

Very sturdy

Bought this for some extra seating at a party and was slightly disappointed that the item arrived more than a week after the promise date. However, looking at the tracking it shows the original item was in transit right up to my destination and then a new item started the process all over again. I infer that the first one was damaged enough that Amazon didn't bother to deliver it because when the second one arrived the box was in shambles. This item is fairly easy to assemble, but instructions do not mention anything about carefully torquing each screw. Normally it probably wouldn't matter however with this design you are removing self tapping sheetmetal screws out of a resin (plastic) panel and then reattaching them. If you tighten them too snug, you'll just strip out the plastic. If you try to use a drill or impact to make the process faster you will certainly strip them out and then none of the metal pieces will hold together. We already have a couple wood picnic tables and this one is clearly different, good and bad. This one looks cleaner and will probably always be easier to clean. It is lighter and can quickly fold down flat to lean against a wall. But the plastic is thin enough that it won't tolerate impacts well if you have a rough crowd to entertain. There is some flex to the whole assembly and everyone will shift a little if one person sits down or gets up. Just a wish, but I would love it if the benches could tuck under the table while folding so you could slide it into a pick-up truck for transporting or tailgating. Instead the fold flat feature retains the full width of whole unit so is not real convenient to move around, especially for one person.

Our new house has a huge double lot back yard and I wanted to have a picnic table that was easy to spray off and clean for the kids to enjoy eating sticky watermelon on the rind and drippy ice cream cones and Popsicles over the summer. This picnic table is perfect - easy clean up, just break out the hose! It's made from the same tough and durable resin that our deck box is (and matches) but the kicker is that unlike classic wooden picnic tables, this one folds up beautifully making it super easy to move when it's time to cut the grass or even if you wanted to take it with you to the beach or store it away in the off season. Really easy to put together, it's just a great table for the yard. Now... the packaging for shipping was pure awful. The box arrived so beat up, that the UPS guy wanted me to come to the truck and see how damaged it was before even thinking about removing it. It was full of holes, gouges, scrapes, pieces of the box were missing and it had barely held together! I trust Amazon though and knew they would remedy any problems so I accepted shipment. Miraculously, there was only a small scrape in the top, but everything was there, no parts were missing and since that was the only damage, it wasn't significant enough for me to feel a need to complain. For pete's sake Lifetime, PLEASE reinforce the packaging on this product before shipping it!

When I first opened the box I quickly glanced at the directions and saw that I needed screws... but a check of the box showed no bag of screws. Dang! But I was just stupid. Had I read the directions instead of just looked at the pictures I would have figured out all the screws are sent already screwed into the table. You have to remove half of them to assemble it properly. I contacted customer service thinking I was missing the screws and they actually got back to me within an hour. By then I had figured out my mistake and thanked them. I was able to assemble the table quickly and easily by myself. It may be a little easier with two people. Once finished, it's a solid strong piece of furniture. And I am not experiencing the "wobble" that some have mentioned. One thing that might help that is you don't want to drive the screws in too far other wise they could strip out the screw hole and will not be as tight. Probably safer to use a manual screw driver rather than a power one which could easily strip the screw holes. Maybe if you have kids jumping around you might have stability problems, but I think it's pretty sturdy.

Pros: I am very pleased with our table. Large enough for 6 people. Easy to clean. Sturdy enough. It is lightweight. Attractive. I can, with difficulty, carry it on my back around the yard, and it is very easy for 2 people to move around. Has a plug for an umbrella in the middle. Only takes about 20 minutes to assemble. Cons: If they haven't changed the packaging since I received mine, the table will likely arrive with some damage. Mine was barely still in the box, and one of the benches was damaged. Ten screws hold on each bench as well as the table top to metal frames. The screws simply fit through a slot in the metal and drive into the plastic. It is not a very secure hold, but might be OK. Two of the screws in a bench were installed improperly. They were just jammed in the slot without entering the plastic. It was easy to fix however. Lastly, the table is a bit wobbly.

We’ve had this table for 7 years. It has sat outside year round in harsh Wisconsin weather (extreme cold, snow, ice, summer heat and humidity, and was never in the shade) and has survived chlorine from kids coming out of the pool and sitting down. It got heavy use from kids and adults alike during this time. We never folded it up and stored it either. Two years ago the plastic table top started cracking along the edges where people sit and lean onto the table and the edges of the seat benches. This year it’s bad enough that it’s crumbling off so we need to replace it. See photos of what this looks like after 7 years. No rust anywhere on the metal frame! This table has been the most durable and longest lasting piece of outdoor furniture that we’ve ever bought! I’m incredibly surprised and impressed. I highly recommend it.

Not bad, easy to assemble. Although some of the holes on the seat didn’t line up we made it work, little shaky but over all pretty good.